![]() ![]() The beats, pauses and breaths between passages happen from frame to frame, so that you can detect the pace of the recitative for example and then enjoy the anticipation and culmination of a grand aria, solo, duet scene or finalé. By that, I mean, he uses the frames and structure of the text and visuals to make space for the sound of the libretto, melodies and accompaniment in the reader’s head. What Russell also manages to do with these works is to advance the narratives, offering a supremely dramatic graphic rendering, yet still enabling the ‘music’ to come through. Craig Russell’s passion for and understanding of great dramatic, musical and literary works fuels his illustrative vision and blends together the stamp of composers, performers, librettists, playwrights and directors. It”s the opera played during The Godfather, Part 3 after all. Here is Cavalleria Rusticana re-written by Russell and his collaborators as a kind of homage to Coppola’s Godfather series. Here is Pelléas and Melisande taken from Maeterlink’s play. Opera as an artform is, oftentimes, already an adaptation of something else, anyway. ![]() They are not so much adaptations as embellishments, or ornamentations, of the archetypal, epic, mythic, biblical and historical tales that also happen to have formed the libretti for so many famous operas. ‘Opera Adaptations’ as a title is somewhat misleading for this collection. ![]()
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